DPGR 149

That night, no one slept a wink. Not knowing when the monster might reappear, everyone stayed on high alert.

It wasn’t until dawn began to break that people slowly began to let their guard down. Even so, the sky remained overcast with dark clouds, making it no brighter than early evening. Still, it felt like they had gotten through a major hurdle.

Sehun approached Dojin, who was silently tending his spear while leaning against the wall of the Safe Zone.

“Do you think that monster was the boss monster?”

“…Probably.”

Clack.

Dojin set his spear upright and checked the blade.

“I’ve never seen the boss monster of this place either, so I can’t say for sure. But something that massive must be the boss monster.”

“…Then how come we didn’t notice it yesterday? We checked the area pretty thoroughly.”

“It might have been somewhere we didn’t look… or maybe it had some kind of stealth ability.”

“Stealth…”

Sehun’s face darkened. Kijoon and Jihye, who had followed behind, also lowered their voices and whispered.

“We didn’t see any other monsters yesterday either. I thought it was strange we didn’t run into a single one. Could that big one have driven them out? Or maybe it’s a territory thing? Like the others ran off because they sensed something.”

“Who knows…”

“Either way, we should check out the place where the monster showed up yesterday. We might find some clues there.”

Dojin agreed with Jihye’s suggestion. He also thought it would be a good idea to look for traces of the monster. Since it was something they had never encountered before, gathering even a little information would give them an advantage in hunting it.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

Leaving the team behind, Dojin walked over to Kwak Jiheon. The Alpha Team members, huddled together and chatting, glanced over at Dojin and Jiheon as they spoke.

Jiheon listened quietly, then with a grim face, summoned all the leaders from the other countries.

Not long after, they had a quick meal of jerky and canned food, then the search team set out to investigate the monster’s trail.

“Let’s move.”

Dojin adjusted his grip on his spear and led the team out of the Safe Zone.

***

The search team trudged through the snow, filled with anticipation.

“It came from over there, right?”

“Yeah, probably…”

“Hmm… This isn’t going to be easy.”

But the tracks were gone, buried under the snow that had fallen overnight.

“We’ve come all this way, we have to find something.”

“But with how deep the snow is…”

Worried murmurs and skeptical comments could be heard here and there, but Dojin silently kept walking. He too felt uneasy, but as the one leading the team, he had to stay calm.

‘It was huge. There has to be something.’

How long had they been walking?

“Ugh!”

“Hey! Are you okay?”

A minor commotion broke out behind them. Dojin and the ones at the front stopped and turned around.

Someone in the middle had apparently tripped over something and fallen.

“Here, let me help you up.”

“Yeah… thanks… huh?”

At first, it just seemed like a minor stumble in the snow, something that could happen to anyone. Dojin was about to suggest they take a short break.

“There’s something here!”

The person who had fallen found something as they were getting up. Those nearby started digging into the snow.

Soon, the entire search team had gathered at that spot, Dojin included.

“What is this…?”

Eventually, something buried under the snow was revealed. It was the frozen corpse of a monster.

“What the… it’s just a dead monster.”

An esper with little field experience dismissed it like it was nothing, but the others quickly noticed that something was off about the body.

“This thing… looks like it was bitten by something.”

“Over here too! Another monster corpse! Looks like there are tons of them nearby!”

No way.

Dojin, uneasy, drove his spear into the ground and used his fire ability. Red energy flowed out, instantly melting the surrounding snow.

That revealed what they hadn’t been able to find before. Monster corpses. Everywhere.

“Whoa…”

Some had been burned along with the snow by Dojin’s fire, but most of the bodies were mostly intact except for some scorched outer hide.

Dojin nudged a corpse at his feet with his boot and flipped it over to examine it, then looked around. Some bodies were in decent condition, others were so mangled they were hard to identify.

What stood out the most were the ones that had been gnawed apart, and scattered bones that couldn’t be linked to any specific monster.

“This… doesn’t it look like someone stripped off only the meat and left the rest?”

“What?”

“I mean, I really like nature documentaries. I’ve seen stuff like this in those…”

Yeah, he was right. It looked just like the remains of prey hunted and eaten by a top predator.

The grotesque remains were scattered like a carpet along the path the monster had taken the night before. Dojin and the espers all understood what it meant.

“The reason we didn’t see any monsters yesterday…”

The monster–no, the boss of this dungeon had been eating the other monsters.

Dojin recalled the unnaturally large creature he’d seen the night before. Everyone else seemed to be thinking the same thing, their faces pale.

Then, with a slightly trembling voice, Kijoon asked,

“C-could it be… if a monster eats another monster… can it evolve…?”

No one had ever seen that happen, so they couldn’t say for sure.

“…You know how monsters have mana stones inside them, right? If it absorbs them, maybe it can grow stronger… like that monster.”

Just as Yulchan said, everyone was starting to have the same thought.

If monsters eat other monsters… was that creature really after the flesh? Or–

‘Was it after the mana stones inside?’

***

“Mmm. That’s… definitely a possibility.”

“What did you say?”

That evening.

The search team returned to the Safe Zone with nothing but unanswered speculation.

There was talk of relocating the Safe Zone, but since the monster had already passed through, the consensus leaned toward staying just one more night under the assumption that it would be safe for the time being.

As preparations for camp resumed, Dojin took Heendungi outside the Safe Zone.

Urged on by Dojin, Heendungi shifted into his human form, his small lips twitching as he spoke.

“A mana stone is a concentrated mass of the mana that makes up monsters. If someone consumes it and absorbs that mana as their own… yeah. It’s possible.”

Heendungi’s voice seemed to drift away as Dojin sank into thought.

“…Wait. Then why don’t other monsters eat each other? I mean, if it makes them stronger.”

“Because normally, they’re not smart enough to think like that.”

“So what you’re saying is… that monster we saw yesterday is intelligent. Could it be… a servant of the gods, like you?”

“Hmm… I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“Servants of the gods only move according to divine will. That means they can’t harm the creations of the gods.”

At Heendungi’s explanation, Dojin’s expression darkened.

If it wasn’t a servant of the gods, then it was just a regular monster with intelligence. And that kind of monster was roaming around devouring others just to get stronger?

Heendungi had no solid answer to that. As Dojin’s thoughts grew heavier, Heendungi, who had been captured and dragged along, finally couldn’t take it anymore and gave a sharp cough.

“Ugh… I’m cold! I wanna turn back into a fox!”

“…Alright.”

The moment Dojin gave permission, Heendungi transformed again into a large, fluffy fox.

Though the humanoid form was more convenient for communication, a young human body was far more vulnerable to cold and heat.

Heendungi shook himself off and let out a long cry. Dojin walked back toward the Safe Zone with the whining fox at his side.

Or rather, he tried to.

Rumble

The ground shook. The sound came from fairly nearby.

Just like the day before, Dojin felt his hair stand on end, his limbs go numb.

His instincts were screaming at him.

“Shit…!”

Beyond the curtain of swirling snow, something was charging straight toward them.

Dojin quickly tucked Heendungi under his arm and sprinted back into the Safe Zone.

“Monsters incoming from the front! Prepare for battle!”

Luckily, the sharpest espers had already risen the moment the first tremor hit. They quickly assessed the situation outside and sprang into action.

“Heendungi! Stay by Guide Jiho!”

Yip!

Dojin set Heendungi down and turned around to head back out of the Safe Zone. A large number of monsters were surging in from afar.

But he wasn’t alone, so while the situation was dangerous, they weren’t at a complete disadvantage against this size of a horde. However–

“W-wait a second… those things aren’t coming to attack us…”

Rumble

Behind the monster horde, a massive mountain rose up from where it had been crouching.

A mountain. Yes, it really looked like a mountain.

“What the fuck is that…”

Someone muttered a raw curse. Dojin swallowed the same words bitterly in silence.

And it was justified.

“They’re running away, aren’t they?”

“…Yes. I think that thing we mistook for a mountain is the monster from yesterday.”

People stared blankly at the looming shadow that grew closer by the second.

Thud–Thud–Thud

The tremors intensified. Screaming and shrieking, the fleeing monsters were crushed under the creature’s feet or snatched up in its hands and shoved into its mouth.

Grrrrrr

A low, guttural roar echoed across the entire area. The monster’s satisfied growl shook the air.

“Defensive formation! Protect the Safe Zone behind us above all else!”

Fortunately, with Dojin in the lead, the espers began snapping out of their daze one by one. It was too late to try escaping and abandon the Safe Zone.

“Make sure the guides are safe first! Strike Team Three, move up!”

They couldn’t count on the monster overlooking the Safe Zone again, like yesterday.

Now that he thought about it, it didn’t even make sense that the creature had failed to notice them before.

‘It knew. It just pretended not to.’

To toy with them? Or to assess their strength?

Dojin didn’t know the reason, but one thing he was certain of–

Tonight was going to be the real fight.